Directors of movies,
teleplays in China urged to cut
smoking scenes

8 March 2007: Directors of
films and teleplays in China have been
advised to cut smoking scenes in their
works.

The advice comes amidst fears that too
much exposure to smoking scenes in
movies and teleplays would undermine
China’s efforts to control use of
tobacco.

“Bad guys smoke. Good guys smoke, too.
In sadness, they smoke. In happiness,
they smoke, too. When in trouble, they
smoke. But when the trouble is fixed,
they are still smoking,” political
advisor Fang Jiqian said.

Fang Jiqian made these remarks at a
group discussion on the sidelines of
an annual session of the Chinese
People’s Political Consultative
Conference (CPPCC), the highest
advisory body of the country, and won
support from his fellow advisors.

“Nearly 63% of the popular home-made
teleplays shown in 2004 and 2005 have
smoking scenes – each teleplay having
30 smoking scenes on an average,” Fang
said. “Too much smoking scenes have an
adverse impact on the audience,
especially youths.”

Fang Jiqian, a professor of public
health with Sun Yat-sen University,
requested the authorities to take
action to restrict the smoking scenes
in movies and teleplays to create a
better environment for the health and
growth of young people.

He blamed government departments
concerned for having failed to put
tobacco and tobacco commercials under
strict control.

“The government should completely ban
all commercial promotions of tobacco
products and expand tobacco ban to
more public places to better protect
non-smokers,” Fang demanded.

The State Tobacco Monopoly
Administration estimates that China
has over 350 million smokers, which is
about 26% of the country’s total
population and a third of the world’s
smoking population.

Each year, about 1 million Chinese die
of smoking-related diseases.

Fang said tobacco control is a solemn
commitment made by the Chinese
government and “it concerns the image
of the government.”

He went on to blame the government for
insufficient action, saying that weak
official efforts have led to the rise
of both tobacco needs and supply in
recent years.

However, Fang did not get much support
from the State Tobacco Monopoly
Administration. “We are fully aware
that smoking harms people’s health,
but we also fear that completely
banning smoking would affect social
stability,” Zhang Baozhen, deputy
chief of the administration, said at
the group discussion.

Zhang did not elaborate on how a
complete ban of smoking would bring
harm to social stability, and said
tobacco control is a “long-term task.”